Friday, May 11, 2007

300

I know I will be eaten alive for saying this but I didn’t like the movie 300 directed by Zack Snyder. In fact, I was very disappointed.

Oddly enough, I was speaking with several friends (people whose opinion I value and respect) and many liked this movie a lot. Not to mention that my own brother entered my house a few moments ago by saying: This is Sparta! LOL Alright, we all have personal tastes and preferences so let me have my wine and cheese.

I was expecting to see an epic historical movie about the battle of Thermopylae in which a band of 300 Spartans held back an army of thousands of Persians but I got dozens of special effects and pathetic characters. It was like a slap right into the face. Heaven preserve us!

So, what is my problem with 300? I have several but I will state only a few. I know the movie is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel and I know it is not meant to be a documentary from some history channel but I simply can’t enjoy this type of entertainment since we already have too many! I am so enough of entertainment movies. I found 300 to be simply pointless and without any meaning and message. Snyder put all efforts into the visual part of the movie instead to develop something way more important, like characters and the story itself. However, I also think that he should simply call this battle and people by some fictional names. That would make more sense considering what he presented to us. It was simply hilarious to hear Snyder’s statement for MTV that 300 is a 90% historically accurate movie. I fell from the chair! Later on, for BBC news, he said that the movie in its core is fantasy movie. Someone might have educated him in the meanwhile, I guess.

So, our brave men are fighting for what? What cause and what lifestyle? Let me tell you that they are fighting for the rows of pillars as that is the only thing that you will see of Sparta. Seeing king Leonidas as some sort of a macho man and Xerxes portrayed as androgynous creature was simply hilarious. And the Oracle! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Female priests are exchanged with a bunch of old (leprous?) men in black hoods. God will no longer speak there indeed!

I heard about the protests in Iran. I won’t comment much although I can see where they are coming from. Thanks to the current political situation in the world, people really became paranoid and that is just sad. Yes, Snyder turned Persians into monsters but I don’t think he had any political intensions as he obviously don’t know much about the battle of Thermopylae nor about Sparta or any other historical aspect that he (ironically) filmed.

The ultimate point of 300 is holding on the ground that the small group of people was outnumbered by their enemies and yet they stood up and fought back. But let me remind you that what is presented to be astonishing, heroic and ultimate sacrifice was common sense back then and many other times in history. Not to mention that dialogues are very shallow and emotions were raised to a pathetic level. I truly couldn’t sympathize with Spartans while laughing at the stupid dialogues.

A lot of effort and money have gone into postproduction and I guess that is exactly the part that people like the most. Heck the entire movie is a series of special effects and there is absolutely nothing else to be seen so, to put it simple, you will enjoy some special effects or you won’t enjoy at all!